Republic Embraces Their Inner ’90s

Posted on September 2, 2009 by Varg

I saw a flyer for The Toadies playing at Republic posted on a telephone pole a few weeks back and it was like I was suddenly walking into an acquaintance I hadn’t seen since ’95 and forgot existed.

Then this morning I get an e-mail saying Marcy Playground has “just been announced” for the venue. Not attempting to hide the band’s questionable relevence the venue decided to address those accusations head on in the e-mail (accents mine)…

Everyone knows Marcy Playground’s hit single “Sex And Candy”, which topped Billboard’s charts at #1 for fifteen consecutive weeks in 1997 (breaking the record at the time), but what many people don’t know is that Marcy Playground have been in the studio for years crafting their keenly-anticipated new record, Leaving Wonderland…In a Fit of Rage, which the band and critics call “their best work yet”. Free from Capitol records and artistically pure as always, the new record is still melodic modern rock for which people know and Love Marcy Playground, but it’s also a record that “digs deep, taking the listener on an exhilarating and satisfying emotional and musical rollercoaster ride”. Their show at Republic will be no exception, promising a bit of nostalgia and a lot of great new tunes.

I did like “Sex and Candy” back in the day and the follow up “Sherry Frasier” but damn, 12 years is a long time to be off the radar.

Coming soon to Republic: Helmut, Candlebox, Catherine Wheel, Folk Implosion, Dishwalla and Our Lady Peace. Not really.

3 thoughts on “Republic Embraces Their Inner ’90s”

jeffrey says:

September 2, 2009 at 12:59 pm

Fuck that shit. September 17 Living Colour at Tip’s. I will be there if my brother scores me a ticket this afternoon.
Varg says:

September 2, 2009 at 1:24 pm

Daaaaaamn. They had that song Cult of Personality and…Cult of Personality. My friends and I have this rule that a band is a one-hit wonder only if the follow up cannot be named. I seem to recall Living Colour’s follow up being about tearing a building down or something.
jeffrey says:

September 2, 2009 at 2:18 pm

I’m a much bigger fan, I guess. Highly undervalued band for lots of reasons.

Here are two of my favorites

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6zU12GL38bY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V_uJVfRaQx4

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Rejoice!

I say that a lot. I sign many pieces with it. I do this because I believe our lives are a true happenstance. A brilliant occurence from nothingness. We are so rare. We are so unlikely. And simply being born isn’t enough. From there we must survive, endure. So each morning, after our Sun departs and is reborn again. Please, for the sake of your ancestors and the Universe in general, hoist that cup of joe up and say, “Rejoice.”

Ours is a soulful existence. No matter how many McMansions, polyester fabrics, auto-tunes, modified foods and social networks we surround ourselves with, we are all still native, passionate beings made of ancient matter. We are organic and we have soul.

Wood also has a warm, soulful quality. Wood has a memory. It retains smells, traumas, events. It even has a calendar. This is why I have chosen it as my medium, for its old soul. I like to think the wood in my work is in its third incarnation. First a tree, then a home and now art. If you have a room that needs a little soul, get a piece. A room can never have enough soul.

My inspiration and subject matter comes from many sources, among them: Humanism, old ballads, trickster tales, flora and fauna, science, myths and folklore, stringed instruments, brass bands, amber spirits, lady vocalists, general relativity and quantum mechanics. Some of my pieces are there just to make a short, simple statement about what’s important in life. Some are more diffuse and abstract in meaning. A personal drama, an enduring line from a poem or novel, a poignant song lyric, the legacy of an important person, a fleeting thought … these are the subjects of my art.

I use hearts often because they are a very abstract way of depicting the human soul without also employing the very subjective human form. The symbolic heart is an apt representation for a person’s experience and essence. A body can immediatly conjure happiness, sorrow, youth, age, anger, bliss. These emotions can get in the way. Sometimes it’s simply about the experience.

I am the son of a sailor and a social worker, the grandson of a gypsy, a dancer and a nurse. I spent my youth moving from port city to port city, watching a lot of road go by and reading World Book Encyclopedia. After my parents settled down on the Gulf Coast, I was a miscreant youth, destroying cars and taking the wrongs things too seriously and the right things not serious enough. Eventually I began replacing my imagination with experience.

I will use any salvaged wood but prefer swamp cypress and longleaf heartwood pine.

I despise waste. Particularly the waste of organic matter. Trees are magnificent. They were here before we arrived and they’ll be around after we are gone. I’m making an effort to save as much wood as possible. Creating art is fun too. But beyond communicating with folks, but beyond making money ad providing for myself, beyond rescuing flooded parts, beyond reveling in the ethereal aroma of heartpine that hasn’t seen the light of day in 400 years, beyond all that, I am trying to make a simple comment on waste.